Is cave diving safer than Open Water

[freeflowigb]

On our last trip we had a discussion comparing cave diving to regular open water diving.
Cave diving has a deadly reputation, but, in all honesty, I've never been scared of it. I did cave dive twice in small sea caves and found it a pretty chill experience. Open water diving in the same sea outside the cave, on the contrary, tends to freak me out even after completing my 100th dive.
So my arguments were that cave diving is generally safer because it lacks the hazards of the open ocean: strong currents, storms, boat propellers, dangerous marine life, unreliable visibility, weird water conditions like downcurrents, etc. An overhead environment can be an advantage because it prevents you from shooting to the surface in a bout of panic. So, if done properly, cave diving in a spring is safer than diving in a sea because there are fewer things you cannot control.
I realize there are hazards specific of cave diving like silt outs, but, as longs as you can breathe and stay on the line, you always know the way out. In the meanwhile, in the open ocean, you may be caught in a strong current and drift away and never be found again.
Another advantage of cave diving in terms of safety is the fact that cave diving courses put great emphasis on safe diving techniques and are thus much harder than your typical OW where they take you down to 100 feet after your 6th OW dive for your AOW course (which I find ridiculously dangerous).
Anyway, I would live to hear your opinion on what you personally find safer and why?

 

[happy-diver]

Yes, because you must

 

[arew+4]

Open water (non wreck, non tech, both by definition not open water), you are one breath away from the surface, if you cut it too close and have to surface with an obligation you might get bent, hopefully mildly.

In a cave you could be many minutes from the surface, one thing goes wrong and you and your buddy could end up dead, worse yet some one else dies going in after your body.

 

[Erik Forsberg]

Naturally, OW is safer than Cave. It's not even debatable.

However, I could see your point that a certified Cave diver might be less risk exposed than a Koh Tao trained OW diver with a fresh cert. Especially if diving a bit more demanding and/or deeper sites.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Is this a serious question? Are you HONESTLY arguing that cave diving is SAFER than open water diving?

 

[oya]

Neither is inherently safe, per se. Both OW and cave diving come with their risks. And the truth of the matter is that there is increased risk in cave diving.

However, that said, cave divers tend to be much more highly trained to mitigate the increased risk of that environment. As such they are much, much better equipped to deal with anything that may happen. Whereas the average Open Water diver is not terribly capable of self-rescue, much less buddy rescue, if things go pear shaped.

This is not to say there aren't excellent OW divers who can take care of themselves and be part of a solid dive team. It is simply to say that in a worthwhile cave class such ideas like control and team problem solving are the bulk of the entire class. Which means someone with cave training is safely capable of dealing with even the most challenging and unthinkable cascade of failures without batting an eye.

So "safer?" I'd say no. Far more risk-averse: yes.

 

[Robert H. Diver]

Is this a troll post or are you actually serious? Also you dived a sea cave which is arguably the most “dangerous” type of cave and weren’t scared but are unnerved by the open water outside the sea cave? Please don’t go into an overhead environment without the proper training and equipment. Don’t want to see you on the accident/incident report posts on here.

 

[Lorenzoid]

It has been said that the dirty little secret is that cave diving is actually easy ... so long as nothing is going wrong. When things go wrong, they have the potential to go REALLY wrong.

I think of the time a pilot friend let me fly on the simulator. So long as you're flying straight and level, anyone can do it. But there are SO many things that can go wrong.

In open water, even if you pop to the surface and get bent, unless you were doing a seriously big dive they can usually fix you up.

 

[PEDiver]

Apples to oranges. Cave diving is inherently more dangerous than your typical OW diving. Hence, why cave training is so rigorous compared to your average OW and AOW training. You can take a cave diver and put them in the OW, but you can't take an OW diver and put them in a cave (well, you can, but it will most likely be a one way trip).

 

[ofg-1]

Yes! The same way that skydiving is safer than golf.